She enjoyed herself but there was a little two much road travelling for her...However the weather was glorious, and she enjoyed the lighthouse and some shopping we did, as well as a visit to Lindisfarne (Holy Island) almost on the boarders of Scotland! Its nice to write about the good bits, but there were some bad bits too...like thanks to the smoking ban I, as a law bidding citizen, have now been criminalised for smoking in a holiday cottage!!! Oh I dident get caught or anything, but I had too descretely smoke in my bedroom with the window wide open, and the help of a smokeless ashtray I got from ebay! Now in the entrance to the cottage there is a huge notice saying it is illeagal to smoke on these premises! Good grief!! It realy did make me feel like a criminal, and when a weird alarm sounded (Usually morning and evening) I was terrified that it was a smoke alarm!!! By the end of the week we had figured out it was actually the caretakers of the lighthouse coming and going, morning and evening, and setting and de-setting the alarm...I have to say it was rather alarming!...opps....sorry...*blushes* Anyway when it came to leaving I Fabreezed, and aired the whole bedroom and stirpped and fabreezed the bed just to make sure, but what a way to send a supposidly relaxing holiday!
Of all things (and like most women) my Mum loves shopping so I took her for a day out to the Metro centre near Newcastle!! Now for those of you who have never been here, its HUGE!!!! and you would need at least a week just to see it all. Fortunatly I know my Mums favorite shop is House of Fraiser so I took her there for a couple of hours, and she loved it! Oddly I love shopping too, and managed to scare the witts out of my credit card! The first thing I got was a *love at first sight* DKNY handbag for a bargin price of just £95!!! it just had to come home with me, its just beautiful with dkny embossed in fusica pink, with gold trim, and leather studded handle! and needless to say is my pride and joy! I also got a pair or Morgan black stilleto evening shoes, and a pair of Gladiator style sandals! I was in my element! Mum bought 3 pairs of shoes and a gorgeous coat, and between us we managed to spend a small fortune! My new handbag looks rather small but its like a Tardis inside and holds far more than my old leather bag (which is also small as I like small bags, and dont carry a huge ammount of trash with me) but it fits my bits perfectly...ciggies, purse, keys, compact, sniffer (Sinex, as I suffer from Sinustitus) and my mp3 player and a lip gloss! Ok I will stop waffling on about handbags now and return to the Holiday!! LOL!!!!
Souter lighhouse is supposidly haunted, and was even featured on the TV programm "Most Haunted" in its first season (I absolutly love that programme) and I told mum about the ghost and let her watch the dvd...two days later I found her in the morning in the kitchen scratching her head and looking confused...."My pee bottle has vanished!!" she told me all very bemused! (pee bottle is a hospital type bottle she had for night time emergencies of a personal nature)...anyway...she blamed the dissapearence on the ghost!!!!!!!! So the tales go, the ghost at Souter likes to take things and move them about, and things will re-appear in the most unusual places. So my mum was looking all over our cottage for this bottle! I must admit it was rather funny and I told her she would find it when she packed her thing...but it never did turn up! If it was the ghost at Souter, I will never know!
One of our nicest days out was the the Holy island of Lindisfarne!
We took the shuttle bus to the castle on a small penninsular, but becuase it was a steep climb, Mum just wanted to sit on a seat overlooking the bay, and so we did, and drank tea and admired the view...it realy is a magical place, but absolutly packed with tourists of every kind, but it did not spoil our day out! Several times a day the island gets cut off by the tide, and it is totally unaccesable by road, so you have to check and double check the times of the tide, and make your visit between these times! After our viewing of the bay we got the shuttle bus back into the delightful tiny village, and had lunch outside in the warm sun. It realy was glorious!!! that was untill my dog Sirius spotted a cat over the wall....................
CRASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sirius was off and took the table with him, smashing crockery and knocking over chairs in his ultra fast wake!!!! It was soooooooooo embarracing!! Sirius had previously been very quiet and supposidly asleep under our table, and I had attached his lead to the table leg beliving it would be safe enough...Obviously not!! I had forgot just how very strong my potty beardied collie is, and he just took off after the cat!!!! Everyone on the verrander was stairing, but I cleared up all the broken crockery, whent back inside the cafe and explained what had happen, and I offered to pay, but the kind lady would not except it, and she just said accidents will happen!! I was very greatfull to her! Oh and I scolded my dog, who just looked at me as if to say "well it was a cat!! what do you expect!!!"
All too soon it was time to leave and Mum remarked on how quick the week had gone, which I was plased about because it meant she had enjoyed herself and I think the sea air did us good too! Souter lighthouse cottage's realy are a beautiful place, and well worth staying for a *get away from it all* break (thats if you don't mind the ghost LOL) and you get a sea view every morning! You can find information about Souter cottages on the National Trust website! You pay for the cottage not per person so it makes sence if more of you go! it sleeps up to four, and has a huge kitchen and bathroom all none smoking ofcourse!!
BTW if you go and smell cigarette smoke in the master bedroom, its not me....its the Ghost!!!!!!! he smokes too!! ;-)
